Read Online The Back of Beyond by Doris Davidson - Free Book Online

That’s why I never kept in touch.’
    â€˜She didn’t enjoy herself, that’s one thing sure.’
    â€˜Don’t worry about it. Gwen’ll be able to come next time.’
    â€˜I don’t think we should arrange a next time,’ he said, looking apologetic. ‘I’m not a great one for making conversation or anything like that. I’m not like Dougal.’
    â€˜I felt awful,’ he told Manny the following day, ‘but Petra scared the pants off me.’
    The pawnbroker gave what was almost a snigger. ‘A rather inappropriate turn of phrase, don’t you think?’
    Alistair’s spells on his own extended from mornings only in the first few weeks to whole days, at the end of which Manny would return happily exhausted to show his ‘manager’ his latest acquisitions. Before putting them in his safe, he would spread them out on his counter and discuss each item with Alistair, asking his evaluation first and then pointing out good points or flaws in the precious stones, and soon the newly-eighteen-year-old was surprising himself as much as Manny by the accuracy of his assessments. He was also showing quite a talent for repairing even the oldest of the timepieces.
    A truly sheepish Dougal broke into his self-congratulatory ramblings one night some four months later. ‘I’ve asked Marge to marry me.’
    Alistair was stunned. During the evening of the foursome with the stuck-up Petra, he had gathered that Marge wasn’t the prim and proper type he had imagined, but a lively girl full of fun, and every bit as lovely as Dougal had said. ‘I didn’t know you were as serious as that about her,’ he murmured. ‘Did she say yes?’
    â€˜She did that.’
    â€˜But you can’t afford to keep a wife?’
    â€˜I’ve been saving as much as I could since I started going with her, it’s near a year now, and I think I’ve enough to rent a cheap flat somewhere and furnish it.’
    â€˜How the mighty are fallen,’ Alistair muttered, then shook his head. ‘No, don’t mind me. Marge is a real nice lass and I wish you both well. Congratulations.’
    After his next meeting with Marge, Dougal was not quite so elated. ‘She told her family she’d accepted my proposal and her father hit the roof. He said she was far too young to think about marriage, but he might agree to it when she’s eighteen – that’s near a year yet – as long as I ask him for his permission properly. I’ll have to ask him for her hand like he was a Victorian father. Did you ever hear the like?’
    â€˜He’s making sure his daughter doesn’t marry some ne’er-do-well,’ Alistair pointed out, ‘and I’ve got to admire him for that.’
    Dougal snorted. ‘You would. Any road, he said he’d let her get engaged, though I didn’t want to have to put money out on a ring. The trouble is, if I don’t, he’ll think I’m a stingy blighter.’
    It was Manny who solved Dougal’s financial problem. After hearing of it from Alistair, he said, joyfully, ‘I picked up a beautiful ring at Balham market about a month ago, remember, and I only gave thirty shillings for it, as I recall.’
    Alistair was about to remind him that he had paid five pounds for it and it was worth much more, when it dawned on him that this was Manny’s way of helping Dougal. ‘Will I tell him to come and have a look at it?’
    â€˜I do not wish to force him into anything, Alistair, so just make the suggestion.’
    Manny arranged to keep the shop open for an extra hour the next day to give Dougal time to get there after work, and during his sojourn round the stalls and second-hand shops, he picked up another two rings which he thought might be suitable.
    Scarcely able to believe his luck when he saw what Manny produced, Dougal gave all three rings his deepest consideration,